(Left) Executive Director of Strategy, Management and Partnerships at QF Higher Education, Hend Zainal, and Director of Academic Affairs at QF Higher Education, Dr. Samah Gamar
Doha, Qatar: As global challenges and opportunities continue to reshape our world, education must adapt to equip individuals with the skills and perspectives required to succeed in this fast-evolving era. The 12th edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation begins today in Doha under the theme “Humanity.io: Human Values at the Heart of Education.”
WISE 12 will deepen the global dialogue on the purpose of education and its responsibility to uplift humanity, even as new technologies and innovations reshape the landscape.
At its heart, the summit will explore how courageous, system-wide transformation, grounded in enduring human values can keep education flexible, inclusive, and meaningful. This focus highlights equity, empathy, and human dignity as guiding principles for envisioning education in an AI-driven era.
WISE 12 will feature five key summit tracks that collectively explore the future of learning and its impact on society. These include putting human needs at the heart of education, realizing the promise of progressive education, navigating the skills revolution in higher education and lifelong learning, catalyzing multi-sectoral systems change to transform education, and centering education on economic opportunities and community resilience. Together, these tracks offer a comprehensive framework for reimagining education in a rapidly evolving world.
It is within this broader vision for the future of learning that QF’s Higher Education steps in with a prominent role at WISE 12, introducing initiatives that reflect Qatar’s leadership in shaping education policy.
Also QF’s Higher Education will be bringing forward new initiatives, research contributions, and strategic partnerships that highlight Qatar’s growing influence in shaping regional and global education policy.
Director of Academic Affairs at QF Higher Education, Dr. Samah Gamar speaking to The Peninsula emphasised the significance of WISE as a platform that continues to impact Qatar, the region, and the world. “WISE 12 is very important. It is something that is going to make an impact and continue to make an impact… because it is bringing policymakers, administrators, and academicians together to discuss the most imperative policy priorities that exist at this point,” she said.
One of the division’s major contributions to this year’s summit will be the formal launch of Ta’alim, a new bilingual journal dedicated to higher education in the Arab region. “Ta’alim means ‘education’ in Arabic, and it will serve as the Arabic and English higher education periodic review,” Dr. Gamar said.
The inaugural edition features original research articles addressing the policy landscape of higher education in the region, with topics ranging from elevating the status of Arabic as a scholarly language to exploring pedagogical and curricular practices tailored to local and regional needs.
She noted that many of the articles challenge conventional models often imported from other contexts, instead advocating for programs that better prepare students for the workforce in Qatar, the wider Arab world, and beyond.
“This is how we believe WISE will make an impact: by promoting real scholarship and academic reports that help inform practices within the 30-plus universities in Qatar, as well as institutions across the region and beyond,” Dr. Gamar added.
Highlighting another dimension of QF’s involvement, Executive Director of Strategy, Management and Partnerships at QF Higher Education, Hend Zainal said the summit will be a pivotal moment for expanding collaboration. “We have a really exciting WISE coming up for us. We have about four MoUs that we will be signing with various educational and professional institutions,” she said.
Zainal underscored that partnerships lie at the core of the Qatar Foundation education model. While each QF partner university maintains individual collaborations with the Foundation, she noted that the system’s true strength emerges when institutions work collectively. “The students benefit. They are able to do cross-registration, take minors at different universities, and explore innovative learning opportunities,” she said.
One of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)s to be signed is with the International Association of Student Affairs and Services, a step that Zainal said aims to ensure that student support programs in the region remain relevant and responsive. “We want to understand what students in this part of the world are facing and come up with solutions that are relevant locally,” she said.
As WISE 12 opens its doors, it marks not just another global education summit, but a moment of collective ambition shaped by bold ideas, meaningful research, and impactful partnerships. With QF’s Higher Education at the forefront, introducing new knowledge platforms, expanding collaboration, and championing values-driven transformation, the summit underscores Qatar’s growing leadership in reimagining education for a rapidly changing world.
